Gaara's Journey Chapter Six
by Fluvial
Summary: A wizard named Faria offers to take the Shukaku out of Gaara, promising that it won't kill him.  Gaara goes to pieces, yelling about how it's his "mother."


7

Faria had never heard of the Shukaku, but he perceived that it was causing some kind of problem. Kish didn't want to explain it at first, but he didn't have much of a choice.

"It's a sand monster," he moaned. "I had it put inside him because…" At first he couldn't even bring himself to say it. He took in a deep breath. "Because I wanted him to protect our village." Kish looked down and a tear fell on a broken tea pot on the ground.

"That is so much pressure to put on a child," Faria said as he reached out and stroked Gaara's hair. Gaara recoiled a bit, but he did not say or do anything else.

"I know that now!" Kish cried. "I don't know what I was thinking," he began to slap his own forehead, "Stupid, stupid me!"

"This Shukaku is troublesome I understand," Faria said.

"Yes, of course it is," Temari spoke up. "It takes control of him, won't let him sleep, and makes him mean and hateful."

"I wasn't always mean and hateful," Gaara growled. "I was once foolish, ignorant, until that is, I discovered my true purpose," a wicked sneer spread across his face. "To kill every existence but my own."

"You see?" Kish said. "How can I deal with that? What am I supposed to do with that?"

"Send assassins to kill me apparently," Gaara interjected.

"Didn't we already talk about that?" Kish groaned some more.

"Well," Faria started again, "If this Shukaku is causing problems, then it is only logical to remove it."

"All four of them started. Kish spoke first, "I've wanted to do that for years," he said looking down again. "But if I do, it'll kill him."

"Oh, how is that?"

"It's intertwined with his soul," Temari stated. "If we take it out, his soul will go with it."

"Ah, very terrible indeed, fortunately I have a remedy to prevent such a tragedy."

Gaara began to tense up.

"I will be able to separate the monster from Gaara's soul. The Shukaku will be gone, and Gaara will live."

Random spouts of sand flew from Gaara's essence and rained all over the shack. "Noooo," he howled, "Not my mother, I won't let you take my mother from me!"

This concept was entirely new to Kish. "Huh? You're mother? Gaara what are you talking about?"

No one bothered to answer him.

"Come on Gaara," Temari scowled. "Haven't you realized by now? That thing is not your mother." She paused in her disgust. "It isn't even female!"

Her words meant nothing to Gaara. With great difficulty, he began to stand up.

"Gaara!" Kish shouted, "What are you doing?"

"I won't let you," he said as his eyes rolled back in his head. "Not my mother, she's all I have!"

Faria took out a small glass tube that was filled with a liquid. He then got out an empty vaccine and began to fill it with the liquid. Gaara didn't notice. "He was screaming while clutching at his stomach but he continued to stagger around in a semi-circle. His sand was flying in every direction, but it was more out of fear and confusion than defense.

The old man took out a wand and muttered something. At once, all the sand disappeared. Gaara was too preoccupied to notice. Drool was leaking between his lips. "You think you can take her from me," he gasped. "Never… Never!"

Faria took him in his arms. Gaara could hardly struggle, and to his horror, none of his sand appeared to protect him. Before he could do or say anything, Faria stuck the needle into a vein in his arm.

Gaara flinched and sucked in his breath. Then his head flopped down and he was out cold.

…

Gaara woke up. His bandages had been changed. He felt somehow lighter and flimsy. He blinked and shook his head around. "A dream," he muttered. "It was just a bad dream… Mother?"

But there was no voice. Only eerie silence. He gasped and tried to sit up. He was on the same couch in the same room, but nothing seemed familiar. "Mother! Mother! Where are you?" he screamed.

Kish was sitting on his bed eating away at his finger nails. "Oh Buddha! He's awake!" He wallered around in his bed close to tears. "What am I supposed to do with him now? Curse that Faria! Curse him!"

At that moment Kankuro came in. "What do we do, Dad?" he asked timidly.

Kish glared up at him, "How am I supposed to know? Ohhh," he rolled around some more. "The situation keeps going from bad to worse."

"We gotta face him some time Dad," Kankuro said. "Here, let's face it together."

Kish sucked in his breath, "Alright."

They got Temari and creeped next to Gaara's couch. He was covering his face with his hands. "Why did you do this to me?" he gushed. He began to sob openly. "She was all that I had," he choked. "She was the only one on earth who loved me! Now I have nobody, nobody at all!" He hiccupped and choked some more. He kept fighting for his breath, his body wracked with sobs.

Kish was suddenly overwhelmed with pity. He rushed over and knelt by Gaara's couch. "That's not true," he said trying to wipe his tears away. "We love you Gaara, all three of us do." He brushed the hairs that stuck to his wet face out of the way. "It's going to be alright, what Temari said was right, that thing was not your mother."

"But, but, Yashamaru said," he took in a big breath, "Yashamaru said that mother was in the sand because, because she wanted to protect me…" he cried some more.

"Damn Yashamaru to hell!" Kish cried. "It isn't true Gaara; your mother has nothing to do with that sand or that demon."

"You're lying!"

"No I'm not, Gaara, I swear I'm not." He looked at the way Gaara's stomach sucked in and out as he cried. "Please calm down that must hurt."

"I c-can't help it," he choked some more. He thought of blasting his father away with his sand, but he was half afraid to try it. What if it didn't work? Then he would have to deal with the grief of that. His chakra wasn't cooperating very much either. More than that though, he somehow didn't want to blast his father away.

Kish held his hand. "You're going to be ok," he said just above a whisper. "We're going to help you get better. We'll be there for you and you'll forget all about the Shukaku being your mother in no time, ok?" he stoked Gaara's hand. Gaara only put up with that for a few seconds, then he took his hand away. But he was slowly calming down. He sniffled and swallowed.

"Do we have any tissues?" Kish asked Temari and Kankuro.

Temari began to look all around, "I can't find any clean ones… Here," she went into the kitchen. "Here's a dish towel."

She threw it to Kish. Kish grabbed it out of the air and began to mop up Gaara's face with it. "Do you want some water?"

"I'll get it," Kankuro offered. He went to the kitchen and retrieved it.

Gaara sipped at it. "Hey," Kish said smiling a bit. "You'll be able to sleep peacefully tonight for the first time, won't that be nice?"

Gaara sniffled some more and slowly nodded. "Sleep," he said. "I never thought of that…"

"Yeah," said Kish placing his hand on Gaara's head. "Won't that be nice?"

"I think so… What's it like to sleep peacefully?"

"Uhhh," said Kish at a loss. "Temari, how would you describe it?"

"Why don't you ever ask me any questions, Dad?"

"Fine Kankuro, how would you describe peaceful sleep?"

Kankuro's face went blank. "Well, uhhh," he stuttered.

"Temari?" Kish went on.

"You'll see tonight Gaara," Temari said kindly. "In fact, it's evening now, why don't you go to sleep early?"

"Perhaps I will."

"I'll go get him something to eat first," Kish said. "Temari, make him some liver, he likes that."

"All we have is squirrel liver," Temari informed him.

"He'll still like it, won't you Gaara? Just put some extra salt on it."


End file.
